Author：Erik Lichtenberg
Date：2009-11-10
Summary：
The overall objective of this project was to conduct empirical examinations of the relationship between land use and economic growth in China, with an emphasis on deriving recommendations for land use policy. Specific objectives were:
1. Estimating the contributions of urban land, land devoted to infrastructure, investment, labor, location, and similar factors to economic growth in the urban and rural sectors of China’s economy.
2. Estimating how the contributions of urban land and land allocated to infrastructure to economic growth in the urban and rural sectors of China’s economy influenced by domestic and foreign direct investment, population, location, and similar factors.
3. Developing criteria for ranking land allocations in order of their contributions to overall economic growth in order to identify areas where farmland conversion is most (and least) desirable, i.e., examining relative benefit:cost ratios of land conversion in different locations.
4. Estimating the impacts of economic growth, domestic and foreign direct investment, population pressure, location, and other factors on the rate of farmland conversion to urban uses.
Keywords：Farmland Conversion；Economic Growth
